ATLANTA, June 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoTrader.com, the ultimate automotive marketplace, recently announced that it has achieved the prestigious "Center of Excellence" certification by BenchmarkPortal, placing its Consumer and Specialty Sales customer service call center in the top ten percent as surveyed for efficiency and effectiveness.

"Earning this award is a great achievement for AutoTrader.com's customer service team," said Pat Dennis, director of customer service for consumer and specialty sales. "This recognition is a testament to our continued investments in our people, development and technology. I am very proud of our team members, who are the foundation to building stronger relationships with our customers."

Customer service call centers achieve the Center of Excellence distinction based on a best-practice metrics drawn from the world's largest database of objective and quantitative data that is audited and validated by researchers from BenchmarkPortal, which was founded by Purdue University. Recipients of the certification must demonstrate superior performance on both cost-related and quality-related metrics.

"This certification attests to the fact that AutoTrader.com and its customer service leaders have successfully balanced efficiency and effectiveness in their operations. By optimizing their cost components and their ability to satisfy cus­tomers, AutoTrader.com exemplifies best practices in a very important consumer products sector," said Bruce Belfiore, CEO and senior research executive of BenchmarkPortal.

Created in 1997, Atlanta-based AutoTrader.com is the Internet's ultimate automotive marketplace. As a leading resource for car shoppers and sellers, AutoTrader.com aggregates millions of new, used and certified pre-owned cars from thousands of dealers and private sellers and provides expert articles and reviews. AutoTrader.com, which also operates the AutoTraderClassics.com auto marketing brand, is wholly owned by AutoTrader Group. Additionally, AutoTrader Group owns Kelley Blue Book (KBB.com®) as well as four other companies that provide a full suite of software tools that help dealers and manufacturers manage their inventory and advertising online: vAuto®, HomeNet Automotive®, VinSolutions® and Automotive Information Systems (AIS). AutoTrader Group is a majority-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. Providence Equity Partners is a 25 percent owner of the company and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is also an investor. For more information, please visit http://press.autotrader.com.

About Center of Excellence Certification

Contact centers and their managers who wish to implement best practices and attain world-class performance in their industry have a unique opportunity to certify their call centers. BenchmarkPortal's rigorous certification process has the advantage of referencing all performance goals to their best practice database of thousands of contact centers. Thus, contact centers will be held to performance levels that will improve their competitive position, not just force them to adhere to an arbitrary standard. Please follow the link to discover what the steps to certification are and how they will improve your center's performance. www.benchmarkportal.com/ call-center-certification.

About BenchmarkPortal

Founded in 1995, BenchmarkPortal is a global leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting, research and industry reports. The BenchmarkPortal team of professionals has gained international recognition for its innovative approach to best practices for the contact center indus­try. BenchmarkPortal hosts the world's largest database of contact center metrics, which is constantly being refreshed with new data. BenchmarkPortal's mission is to provide contact center managers with the tools and information that will help them optimize their efficiency and effectiveness in their customer communications. For more information on BenchmarkPortal please call 1-800-214-8929 or visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com.